§ SIR M. HICKS BEACHTo ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether the Gold Coast Colony has repaid any part of the advances made to it in 1898–9 of £29,441 for telegraph construction, and in 1900–1901 of £400,000 for the Ashanti war, or any part of £97,768 still due on account of advances made for the Ashanti War in 1895–6, and when he expects that any such repayments will be made; whether he will present to the House a statement of the revenue and expenditure and trade of the Gold Coast since 1895–6, and of Lagos und North and South Nigeria since Nigeria was taken over from the Royal Niger Company, of the same kind as that relating to the Protectorates on the East Coast of Africa (Cd. 1635, Africa, No. 9, 1903), before the Votes for the Gold Coast and North Nigeria are taken.
(Answered by Mr. Secretary Lyttelton.) The Gold Coast has not yet repaid any 1390 part of the advances referred to, and it is not expected that any such repayments will be made until the state of the money market makes it possible to issue the further Railway Loan, and so set free the balances which have been applied to railway construction pending the issue of the loan. A statement of the revenue and expenditure and the trade of the Gold Coast and of Lagos and Northern and Southern Nigeria will be presented as desired.